Starre Smith's Commentary on the ArusoDoom War
by ZutarianNaiad
Summary: This is Starre Smith, giving you what's not going to happen in the Aruso-Doom War first. I'll point out all those glaring holes in the Castle of Lions' defense network, all the strategies which won't be in practice, and commentary on the war not happening
1. Automated Systems

This will be the only disclaimer for the fic: I do not own WEP trademarked characters, planets, and products. My interpretations of the show and commentary are my own. Original ideas about the settings and technical operations of various mecha are my own. Fictitious historical events and legal precedents are mine.

The format of the story is something like a column or a blog. Ideas for future of Starre Smith's posts would be appreciated. Please enjoy!

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**On Automated Systems, Particularly the Pilot Access Chutes**

Hello there, all ye denizens of the netlands. I'm sure you've all been waiting for my next scathing insight to the Aro-Doom war with bated breath. You'll enjoy this one—it struck me as I was making a milkshake with my new blender. You see, I believe in throwing all the individual ingredients into a machine with spinning blades instead of just setting a milkshake machine to double chocolate chip. You know why? Because I don't trust automated systems. The thing about automated systems is that they take the human factor out of things—the chance for mistakes, the lack of uniformity, the marginal inefficiencies. But also the genius, the luck, the curiosity, and the suspicion that comes with involving a human.

The thing about automated systems is that there is always a way to fool them.

Take for example the pilots' chutes for entry to the lions on our favorite subject, Voltron. (Actually, my most recent survey showed our favorite subject to be the shirtless fight pictures captured of the Prince of Doom and Commander Keith trying to kill each other, which weirds me out since a projected 85% of my watchers are male. Anyway, back to our subject for today—the technical workings of Voltron.)

Think about the Life Cradle—in the interchangeable robotic workings of Voltron, this is the pilot's chair with head and arm protection, floor-plate, and life support control center which is situated inside the cockpit of the lion's head. This equipment speeds to the amazing robotic lions composing the Voltron Matrix by means of totally automated chutes branching out from the Castle of Lions to each lion's resting habitat. The distance for each is different, over two hundred fifty miles to Red Lion's volcano, roughly three hundred seventy-five miles to the rain-shadow desert where Yellow Lion rests. The shortest distance, barely one hundred yards, is from the control center departure capsules to Starlight Lake where Blue Lion lies dormant until needed. The system was designed to be synchronized, so the Blue Lion life cradle practically crawls while the others speed. (Black Lion is barely fifty yards further, but the leader of the mission needs a head start. Green Lion has to navigate through the forest without damaging it—see ENVIRONMENTS OF THE LIONS for reasons; nevertheless, it needs more time to come to the rest.)

Now think about the chutes themselves, particularly an electronically serviced chute exposed to neither rust nor humidity though it comes directly to a lake. Underwater photography shows a large metal platform beneath the sleeping lion, which appears to be about 3.5x12.5x7 meters in dimension. I haven't been able yet to discover the exact purpose of the platform, but it helps to support other information gathered, which is that there are not merely five separate chutes going directly from the Castle of Lions for the five launching environments. There are massive voltridium (see VOLTRIDIUM) ore deposits near the castle, which prevent direct routes in the pilot carrying chutes from Control Center to launching points. Therefore the routes are indirect, and deeper underground than even the castle itself goes. There are numerous access hatches in the ground, leftover from the construction of the chutes. There are smaller access tunnels attached to the primary chutes, giving nearly labyrinthine byways to any idiot willing to walk along the pilots' travel-chutes when at any moment they may become splattered paste all over pilot and Life Cradle. But who would be that stupid? Well, perhaps if Doom had thought of it the chute would be filled with drones to kill pilots or kidnap Princess Allura before she even gets to her lion. But Doom never does think that way, and that's why I get thirty-two credits a hit on this site.

But, as revealed in an in-depth study of battle footage of the Castle of Lions, there are backup routes for every primary shuttle. For the prideful, lion-hearted creators of Voltron this sort of forethought leaves me flabbergasted. The fact that these backup chutes are so easy to discover lets me relax a little in my presuppositions that the men were geniuses, if a bit thick. Included below are stills from video footage from the Castle of Lions during a fight between Voltron and one of Doom's Robeasts. The stills show in order, the Castle of Lions laying cover fire up in the sky. Next, the robeast throws something appearing to be some sort of ball of lightning—probably is; they don't get too terribly creative, and 5,000,000,000 Kelvin of anything usually works. But see how the castle lights up in picture three? That's because the castle is made of a voltridium-titanium allow. The chutes are of a higher concentration of voltridium—those are the pure white cable-looking things, spidering out from the castle. One can see the main chutes for the two lions nearest the castle, Blue Lion and Black Lion, and the Y's where the main routes split into secondary. It's impossible to tell which is secondary and which is primary, but evidence suggests that both reach the landing site instead of merging near the end. But we can also see the multiple interconnections branching off and coming back around, which are the service and repair passages, many of which are large enough for the Life Cradle. Those things that look like Dalmatian-spotted novas in the ground are voltridium ore deposits. And simply for perspective I've included a shot of Voltron taking a shot, glowing at a measured 8.6 times the relative brightness of the star Arus is orbiting on a clear day. This is a wonderful attribute of voltridium: it turns around surplus energy, taking hits and sloughing them off, glowing like the sun while it does. That's how the pilots aren't flash-fried each time they take 5,000,000,000 Kelvin shots and why it's so hard to get a clear picture of Voltron taking a shot. There is also much footage of Voltron's pilots screaming in pain as Voltron takes hits or shocks. I'm still investigating this, but I suspect it's something to do with flawed communications wiring.

Now, at the speeds the Life Cradles are going, things are totally automated. There's no room for anything else. And with little more than some extremely expensive information services, the pilot will be delivered in the life cradle to an unknown, unfindable point because people so rarely look directly underneath their own noses, so to speak. Resetting the life cradle to finish its route to the lion without a pilot would take much more work, but it's just an automated system and automated systems can be fooled. Especially with a convenient non-sapient clone—a meat drone, the easiest and quickest to grow. Not that Doom would have ever thought of this, and now that I've published this little article about the failings in the system, I suspect that the Castle of Lions will soon be closed for maintenance.

What, the thought of weeks of maintenance without Voltron scares you? Well, not to fear: the lions can rest in places other than their designated environments, and I suspect that a sign of the maintenance will be the five lions on display in the Castle of Lions' front yard, slowly losing battery power but still ready for a fight.

This is Starre Smith, always giving you that which _isn't _going to happen in the Aro-Doom War first.


	2. Lawsuits

**On Lawsuits**

Hello, all ye denizens of the netlands. You know something really neat about the legal system? No matter how asinine a ruling may be, if the judge bangs his gavel on it, it becomes legal precedent. Even if the ruling contradicts the spirit of law, precedent becomes higher than the law. How about that!

Now, with cultures spreading out across the galaxy and interspecies relationships, the rules don't change, but there are new things for there to be legal jargon about.

Take for example, the precedent of G'Hethec S'Keppt vs. the State of Corrilina. What happened was that a rather stupid human boy married a praying mantis woman. Lovely wedding, expensive honeymoon suite, he was dead by morning and the woman was going to have an adorable hybrid baby. The boy's family sued for the murder and for custody of their grandchild. G'Hethec S'Keppt and her multi-planetary team of lawyers countered that the boy was an idiot for marrying a praying mantis woman without familiarizing himself with the cultural barriers and biological inevitabilities (he was a fool in love). So due to insurmountable cultural barriers, the widow S'Keppt was acquitted and extremely amiable to the idea of her late husband's family being involved in her child's life. But the precedent remained.

And more than just that precedent, there is a dangerous idea behind it: people from different planets can blame their species and upbringing to get away with anything.

So, let's bring this around to the Aruso-Doom War. One of the main conflicts in this war is that Prince Lotor of Doom is determined to have Princess Allura for his bride. Now, there are plenty of diplomatic routes not being taken for obvious reasons that she apparently would rather gouge her own eyes out with rusty pliers before considering willing matrimony with the infamous Prince of Doom, and the only diplomacy that the Drule seem to know is Battleship Diplomacy (not the best for encouraging happy nuptials).

Now, taking the G'Hethec S'Keppt vs. the State of Corrilina ruling and some extremely well-paid lawyers, the Prince of Doom could make a case, suing Arus for Princess Allura's hand in marriage.

Impossible, you say? Well, let's take a look at the concept of Drule marriage in the noble and royal classes. One, upon first sight of a Drule's life-mate, an obsessive fascination forms which in no recorded cases has ever ceased before either capture of the desired mate or death of either person. Second, consistent denial has been known to drive the Drule to an obsessive mania, exhibiting violent rages, paranoia, fantasies indistinguishable from reality, and an unstoppable habit of stalking the desired mate. Third, these conditions are exacerbated by the warrior Drule's blood-fever, a sort of violent mania which overtakes them in the heat of battle.

Hmm. Prince Charming, huh?

I happen to know that among my watchers are several members of the upper-echelons of the Drule Empire, and would like to tell them right now not to get too far ahead of themselves. Because Prince Lotor is a hybrid, the biological part of the argument is a huge issue with the case. The prince would have to submit for extensive testing, which would quite probably be painful and certainly be uncomfortable and embarrassing. Though the opportunity could be slightly abused for the greater good, learning about Drule physiology. But I digress. Another concern would be the fact that his mother is reputed to be Arusian. This does not automatically give Lotor citizenship to Arus, though a quirk in Arusian law is that the reigning monarch has the privilege of bestowing citizenship on whomsoever they choose, if the person has had contact with Arus. This is why Princess Allura cannot declare all Doom slaves to be citizens of Arus and sue for ill treatment of subjects. But that little article in the law is why the Princess could give the Green Lion pilot citizenship to Arus after his home world was destroyed and why she could theoretically declare Prince Lotor a subject and therefore bound by all Arusian laws, including those related to attempted regicide.

And with all these different ways the legal battle could go, Prince Lotor would have arthritis worse than his father's overwhelming case of eczema and Princess Allura would be a crusty old woman before the first victory in the legal battle was achieved. And the legal and transport fees for both sides might just become the accidental backbone of this galaxy's entire economy, and resulting in an economic crash when mistrial is declared and both sides realize that after all these years it's just not worth it anymore.

And, by the way, it's not a good idea for either side to open the floodgates of lawsuits on either side. People die wherever Voltron goes, and everyone knows that Doom doesn't pay in their commerce. It'll be a messy legal system and futile war if lawyers get involved.

This is Starre Smith, always giving you that which _isn't _going to happen in the Aruso-Doom War first.


	3. Armies of Doom

**On The Armies Of Doom**

Hello there, all ye denizens of the netlands. You know why Arus keeps winning battles and Doom keeps losing battles, thus prolonging their war? Hint: it's not because of Voltron. It's because the forces of Doom are doomed to failure in their current state.

Take the first army: Zarkon's forces. Those are the ones that razed Arus to the ground after its Golden Age, drove its people underground, and took much of its population into slavery. As far as conquering goes, Zarkon's army has it.

Problems with the first army: Zarkon is inconsistent. There are times when he has vowed that all he wants is to destroy Arus, Voltron, and anything thereto related. Other times he wanted to keep the natural resources, game, architecture, the people for slaves, and Voltron intact if possible: in essence, a total victory with huge net profit for the Drule. Added to that is the fact that King Zarkon is no longer personally invested in the war. He fell into the habit of delegating, and although the Aruso-Doom war is a thorn in his side and a roadblock in his universal conquest, Zarkon himself no longer seems to care.

Take the second army: Prince Lotor's army. This is the army waging the daily war on Arus (biweekly to monthly, more like—it takes time to gather resources, travel, and regroup after every time he's beaten). As far as presenting a primary enemy at present, Lotor's army has it.

Problems with the second army: Lotor is more personally invested in his own agenda, the ends he wages war to achieve (being the acquisition of his chosen wife and queen), than actually winning a war. Honestly, if he really wanted to win, I think he might think up or implement some of the ideas that come to me every single day (it's amazing the mass carnage my microwave inspires, or the cruel and quick strategies that just crop up while painting my nails). Lotor's personal involvement seems to have built up psychological blocks which prevent him from being capable of success. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into Lotor's consistent failures, seemingly in spite of the odds consistently being in his favor at the beginnings of the battles before the lions form Voltron. Another problem is that Lotor keeps relying on the wrong people. My sources tell me that he constantly consults Zarkon's witch Haggar, even though it's common knowledge that she hates "the slimy half-blood" and there is great evidence that she sabotages his battle plans which rely on her Robeasts. Besides his direct lack of strategy, Lotor's management skills are horrendous as he often raids Arus, a planet at the Galactic poverty standard and universally classified as a "rebuilding planet." There's no prosperity to loot—just poor people to steal from. When Lotor has conquered many more profitable planets, it makes no sense to raid Arus, except for his own personal issues. Lotor knows what he wants, but he allows his emotional ties to the battle to compromise him.

Now, if either of the armies would just fix any of these small problems, then Arus would lose and Doom would win because Doom has a massive pool of resources, the capacity for many giant war machines to Arus' single Voltron. Also the armies of Doom are not moral, while Arusian armies must always think of the cost of life and civilian casualties.

Add to the mix the Psychic (and arguably psychotic) Queen Merla, allegedly the estranged wife of Prince Lotor (with much evidence supporting that rumor). She is incredibly intelligent, reports label her as "coldly strategic in thinking," and she has her own entourage of loyal warriors and an empire of her own supplying the capital and raw materials for her war efforts. Queen Merla's forces have been reported to cut through Arusian defenses through sister planet Pollux, proving that a woman's devious touch really expedites things in a war. But the woman is apparently slave to her own emotions, particularly jealous rages over her "husband." She is easily emotionally compromised, and therefore easily manipulated, most notably by Prince Lotor. Though the woman is a wildcard, and I wouldn't want to be in a fight with her, because she keeps her head in battle at least (which neither Zarkon nor Lotor make a habit of). She is scary good in a fight, but I wouldn't count her a fine asset in a war, particularly with her extreme love-hate relationship with her enemy-ally-significant other Prince Lotor.

In short, as long as the enemies remain uncomplimentary and divided, retaining their flaws (which they seem unable to rid themselves of) then they seem doomed to fail.

All right, and Voltron makes a giant-fighting-robot-sized difference.

This is Starre Smith, bringing you what _isn't_ going to happen in the Aruso-Doom War first.


	4. Divisions Preventing Conquering

**On Divisions Preventing Conquering**

Hello there, all ye denizens of the netlands. History shows that one of the most effective battle strategies ever devised was to divide and conquer. Arus will not be implementing this in their ongoing war because Doom has already done the job for them, darn it all! We last talked about the forces of Doom, and today I'd like to expostulate on why Doom will continue in their current consistent habit of failure to win decisive battles.

Now, we've noticed that Prince Prince Lotor, King King Zarkon, and the other one do pretty well on keeping the Voltron Force on their toes and Arus in poverty, constantly rebuilding (perhaps it's a cleverly disguised war of attrition rather than an outright fight). But that's because there's typically only one force coming at a time because the forces of Doom cannot work together.

Item 1: King Zarkon can't work with Prince Lotor. Doom broadcasts their coliseum fights, and King Zarkon has an equivalent of a radio commentator's box. From those broadcasts we know that King Zarkon regularly berates his son in public, and other sundry sources tell me he constantly does so in his throne room. When one officer has no respect for another, then they cannot work together. And a few psychologist friends of mine have had some glorious fun dissecting his Majesty's brain, determining self-loathing complexes and deep-seated regret, resentment, and hatred related to Prince Lotor's mother. They say he sees all his life's failures in Prince Lotor and projects those failures onto his son in order to support his narcissism complex.

Item 2: Prince Lotor cannot work with King Zarkon. It is common knowledge that father and son hate eat other, but I daresay Prince Lotor hates his father more. King Zarkon stole his mother. King Zarkon salts and limes each of Prince Lotor's wounds like tequila (I've seen videos and I'm not exaggerating). King Zarkon exploits Prince Lotor's near constant need of his father's resources so far from his own home bases, right to the base fact that none of Prince Lotor's supply ships reach him without getting through King Zarkon's blockade first (not a blanket blockade, but a very well informed one). Prince Lotor challenged his father to a traditional duel for the empire, and this is on top of many justified rumors of shadier and subtler attempts on the King's life. And Prince Lotor and King Zarkon simply cannot agree on the mission premise of the war. King Zarkon doesn't know what he wants, sometimes demanding the game, people, and natural resources, other times saying to nuke it all. Prince Lotor knows what he wants—he wants the princess, he wants Voltron, he wants the planet intact (if impoverished and subjugated). My psychologist friends had even more fun with dissecting his brain than King Zarkon's because they said his mind was more complex. They threw around terms like simultaneous inferiority and superiority complex, intimacy-seeker stalker, Oedipus complex (have you ever noticed that all blonde Arusian women look exactly alike?), regicide focused sociopathy, and so much more.

Item 3: Prince Lotor cannot work with Queen Merla. This is because he is obsessed with Allura, and Queen Merla's terms are that Prince Lotor honors his wedding vows and adding "forsaking all others" to the traditional litany of rather abstract traditional Drule vows. Prince Lotor refuses to abide by these terms.

Item 4: Queen Merla cannot work with Prince Lotor. He won't abide by her terms, preempting her opportunity to work with him. He won't work with her because of Allura, so she will neutralize the threat to their unity. As long as she has her womanly pride and obsession are part of the picture (which are impossible to divorce from her character), it will be impossible for her to work with Prince Lotor in any way until Allura is dead.

Item 5: Queen Merla cannot work with King Zarkon. There is nothing in it for her—King Zarkon can do nothing else for her, and the woman is very mercenary about her ties. If there is no benefit of the allegiance for her, she won't waste time on the liability.

Item 6: King Zarkon cannot work with Queen Merla. This is because she will not work for him, and King Zarkon knows an insane, mood-swinging woman when he sees one. That hasn't stopped him before, but it might give him pause (and might explain why Queen Merla is married to Prince Lotor instead of King Zarkon).

So the forces are pre-split, and split very effectively. The irony of the situation is that for each reason they can't work together (years of abuse, homicidal tendencies), there is some form of dependence. With Doom politics dancing them through hoops, it's doubtful that they will ever unite to win.

How can they win with Voltron to defend Arus? you may ask. Take this for example: Princess Allura's recently leaked social calendar for the month of August last year. The fifth—supposed to get a manicure. The fifth, in historical record—Prince Prince Lotor attacked, Allura photographed with a bandage on right index finger, persisted through the month. The eighth—Allura was to help in a groundbreaking for a secondary school, in hopes that her endorsement will encourage the remains of Arus' Lost Generation to not abandon education solely for the hard labor of rebuilding, thereby prolonging Arus' poverty for another full generation. The eighth—Queen Queen Merla firebombed the site in a fit of jealous rage over Prince Lotor's most recent attack. One twenty-year-old teacher and two potential students died. The tenth—Allura had been scheduled to make a speech. The tenth—King Zarkon's delegated forces make a raid. The next week is fairly peaceful, rumors fly that Allura is having a nervous breakdown, Romelle rumored to have smuggled a case of Pollux Devil's Tongue Ailin' Ale through customs in order to comfort Allura. These rumors are fully unsubstantiated because if a lightweight like Allura tangled with Devil's Tongue, she'd be hung-over for three months. But Allura emerged at the end of that week in Blue Lion to face the newest raiding party with a lioness's fierceness, rumors of a nervous breakdown still floating about in the wake of a week without Voltron.

Hmm… just think about how much power Doom forfeits by merit of their very personalities. And years of parental abuse and chemical imbalances in Queen Merla's brain.

Well, everyone, this is Starre Smith, giving you what _isn't_ going to happen in the Aruso-Doom war first.


	5. Voltron's Manufacture and Voltridium

**On the Origin of Voltron and Voltridium**

Hello there, all ye denizens of the netlands. I bet like many of the more dastardly competitors in the Aruso-Doom war, you wonder just what makes Voltron tick. I'd like to know that too so I could consider whether or not to post the information. No, I can't tell you exactly what schematics would tell you, but I can tell you what Voltron's made of. Of what Voltron is made. Anyway. Looking through my information, I've been unable to divorce the historical from the technical, so bear with me here.

I've shown you before pictures of the Castle of Lions during an attack from Doom, showing huge deposits of ore which light up like Dalmatian-spotted novas when charged with enormous amounts of electricity. Yeah, good times. Well, that's Voltridium ore. It's impure with other metals, certain minerals, and a very interesting form of glass which will be revisited later in the post. These impurities make the dark spots in the novas. The reason for the brightness when charged was described in my short essay on mechanical systems, summed up a little ways below. Anyway, Voltridium is found on Arus and so far only three other planets. The facsimile Voltron, "Vehicle Voltron," is made from alloys of Arusian Voltridium, titanium, and Voltridium from a planet discovered by the Vehicle Voltron's crew before they actually were the Vehicle Voltron crew. Voltridium ore mining is a process best left to the Golden Age of Arus and very large equipment. It is unpleasant, and I think there are fumes which cause each Voltrium ore miner to think the job is somehow glorious. Or it's just good ole Arusian nationalism (jingoism?) at work.

Voltridium is incredibly hard to work with in bulk, which is one of the contributing reasons why Voltron is in five separate parts. In small amounts, which is to say about the volume of your standard carbon brick, the ore melts at the same heat as steel. Unfortunately, that statistic only applies in small amounts. The more Voltridium there is, the higher the melting point. The ratios for mass-related rising melting points are fixed, and are equivalent to the ratios of the Golden Rectangle (I hate real geometry, by the way), and the square root of two is in the equation somewhere. Gotta love golden recatangles and root-two, right? I'm sorry to tell you I had a scientist, not an engineer, explaining this to me, and he couldn't dumb it down enough (and there's no way in heck that was the 5th grader's lesson).

One of the crowning glories of Arus' Golden Age isn't necessarily that they built Voltron, but that they harnessed and refined the materials. It was an incredible feat of engineering that the scientists were distracted long enough for a real genius, which is to say _an engineer_, was able to get some properly functioning schematics on the table while they were focused by the colossal amounts of calculus involved in making their flawed design work. Sources tell me that the original blueprints were similar to the complete Voltron (with much large arms, shoulders, and arsenals), but the components would have been massive and under incredible strain. It was originally designed with one pilot in mind and the beginning of a semi-sentient AI program, which is still said to live as the "soul" of Voltron, that little extra good luck that the pilots reference in their regular "…thanks to Voltron!" after a risky battle. Creepy? Well, it's not as scary as that conspiracy back on Earth, thank you very much Galaxy Garrison. But you didn't just read that, and as far as has been proved, there is no artificial intelligence operating the robot in battles.

Anyway, due to those flaws in the original design (flaws which the scientists explained away with numbers while the engineers solved the flaws with common sense), there arose the five-lion concept. The lion avatar was favored as the royal symbol of the Arusian Royal Family, which was a big deal back when Voltron was created. It was Arus' Golden Age, they were making amazing things, and the people were staunchly royalist. The number five was complimentary—four compass points, plus the right direction (Arusian philosophy); four elements (Arusian myth has the four primary elements as water, fire, barren land [typically sand, the parallel of living soil as dead soil], and living land [typically forest, but also valleys and other farmlands, parallel of dead soil as living soil), plus the fifth (Arusian myth saving Air or Sky as the final element, that which is reserves as the last frontier for the hometown-type farming people of Arus); four limbs, plus the center (they look at the torso and the head philosophically the same, being farmers predominantly who depended on the strength of their limbs to do work they would see, and strength of organs and mind to deal with problems they couldn't _see_). Yep, they loved the number five. And it just so happened that cutting each operation down to one-fifth the size saved the manufacturers and engineers about 50x the amount of effort (no one cares about the scientists—they were just puzzling how to make cool weapons on their butchered budget).

So Voltron was manufactured on a design of shifting, interlocking parts which operated famously by themselves. See THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE LIONS for information on the individual lions.

Now, why use Voltridium to make Voltron? Well, although the Golden Age Arusians were fantastic engineers, craftsmen, and scientists, they weren't always that bright, so using Voltridium at least saved them the effort of having to think up an original name. But Voltridium was a huge challenge to work with , and conquering a challenge like that in order to face the challenge of making their great protector and symbol of greatness was just the sort of thing Golden Age Arusians were nuts for. But also there's the fact that Voltridium is the best metal that ever there was for making a giant fighting robot. It absorbs the kinetic energy of attacks, taking some to batteries and sloughing off the rest in a brilliant glow (the reason for Voltron, the access tunnels, and ore deposits glowing so intensely when charged with electricity). Voltridium never loses its temper, not even when cracked, or put under massive pressures or lack of pressure in the vacuum of space, extreme heat or cold, or just being beaten ruthlessly in battle. As hinted at earlier, Voltridium is stronger the more of it there is at once. This is why Voltron is more than the sum of its parts—five lions can do so much, but five times the Voltridium is always _more_ than five times the Voltridium.

Now, think about the battles the Voltron Force has taken part in: they always start in the lions, try to fight it out that way (strength in numbers, yeah right), but always end up in Voltron to fight the Robeast of the Day. What I have to wonder is this: why not take the lions out before they have a chance to form Voltron? Not even plural lions—target one, attack one mercilessly. That way they don't have the _option_ of forming Voltron.

Of course, now Arus will either design proper countermeasures or bring such maneuvers out of the "until needed" file. As for Doom, well, with your record, could it hurt you to try? And if you were looking for the Hephaestus type "single fatal flaw" in the machine, don't look for it in the materials. As far as design goes, Voltridium can do no wrong.

But Voltridium is not a transparent metal, and no alloy can make it so. Remember that glass I mentioned before? It is formed by sand trapped in Voltridium ore as it develops. Don't ask how, because I wasn't about to talk to a geologist after my "Golden Rectangle to the square-root-of-two power!" experience. I shudder just thinking about it. Anywho, the glass develops in awkward, jaggedy lumps. They melt before Voltridium does, in any quantity and size, and manage to sweat through the softening ore into collection pans during the first stage of ore preparation. This glass used to be used in jewelry, but during the massive undertaking of Voltron it was all used in the cockpit glasses, protection around the power core, and throughout the systems to protect power junctions. The cockpit glass is probably the most important because this special Voltridium-Glass has to withstand all the abuse that Voltridium itself has to, and never scuff, scar, warp, leak, break, or otherwise do anything but exactly what it's supposed to. But those lovely Arusian engineers did count on the glass deforming somewhat, and the cockpit seal is not totally static—there's actually quite a lot in the way of compensators and micrometal flex. It's fascinating. So I'm told.

As far as the power cores, they are more heavily involved with the environments of the lions. And I get a feeling that the Arus DOD is going to sue me for posting all that I have so far.

So everyone, this is Starre Smith, giving you what _isn't_ going to happen in the Aruso-Doom war first.


End file.
